Prominent Indian writer Arundhati Roy has canceled her planned attendance at the Berlin International Film Festival, saying her withdrawal comes in response to “unconscionable statements” made by the jury and its president, Wim Wenders, about the Gaza Strip.

“With deep regret, I must say that I will not be attending the Berlinale,” Roy wrote in a statement issued by her publisher on Friday.

At the press conference on the festival’s opening day on Thursday, jury members were asked to comment on the festival’s position on the conflict in Gaza.

A journalist had accused the festival of showing solidarity with Ukrainians and Iranians but not with Palestinians.

One jury member, Ewa Puszczynska, said asking such a question was “unfair.”

Jury president Wenders responded, “We cannot really enter the field of politics,” and described filmmakers as “the counterweight to politics.”

In Roy’s statement, she wrote that “[to] hear them say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping.” 

“It is a way of shutting down a conversation about a crime against humanity even as it unfolds before us in real time — when artists, writers and filmmakers should be doing everything in their power to stop it.”

Roy, who is known as a firm supporter of the Palestinian cause, was due to attend a Berlinale screening of her 1989 film “In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones.”

Germany has been under fire internationally for its diplomatic support to Israel, which insists it is targeting Hamas militants rather than civilians in Gaza. Hamas is designated as a terrorist group in Israel, Germany and several other countries.